Syndicate Mission Running

Mission running in and around EVE University's Null-Sec staging area in PC9-AY provides an alternative to High-Sec mission running, with significantly higher rewards but also increased risks.

Why you should do Missions

Main article: Missions

There is one very simple reason why you should run Security Missions in Syndicate: they pay well. The rewards from a any mission depend on the base level of the mission itself and the System Security that the mission agent is in. While High-Sec Level 4 missions might pay more in raw terms, L3 missions in Null-Sec have a hefty bonus to their rewards and can be blitzed in a destroyer, earning more ISK per hour than ca regular L4 mission in High-Sec. Here are two examples. We have a L4 mission from a 0.6 system (Similar to Stacmon, Slays (1 jump from Stacmon) or Amygnon) and we have a L3 from a -0.2 system (T22 in the PC9 pocket).

High-Sec L4 Mission Agent

Null-Sec L3 Mission Agent

Main article: Using Loyalty Points

These are just two random examples that show how close the payout can be between High-Sec L4s and nullsec L3s. Obviously, some missions will pay more and some will pay less, but what is important is the knowledge that the L3s can be completed much more rapidly than L4s and require less ISK and skill investment.

As if that wasn't enough, the LP gained from running missions for the Intaki Syndicate (the NPC corporation we recommend working for at the PC9 staging area) is also very valuable. Using the Fuzzwork LP Store, let's take a look at LP values for the Sisters of EVE, which many consider to be the best LP store in High-Sec, against the Intaki Synidcate.

Sisters of EVE LP

Intaki Syndicate LP

These numbers do change constantly because of the market, and some of the LP values can be artificially high, so take the exact values with a pinch of salt and do you own market research to make sure you are spending LP on items you can actually sell. Nevertheless, on average Syndicate LP is worth roughly 60% more than the best LP available in High-Sec.

And that is only for L3 missions. The rewards increase further as you progress to Null-Sec L4s and burner missions.

Isn't it risky in Null-Sec?

Yes, there is always a risk of losing your ship when doing anything in Null-Sec, and you do have to be prepared to stop what you're doing and safeguard your ship. That said, the risk is surprisingly low.

Many people view Null-Sec as the dangerous part of EVE Online. The truth is, Null-Sec is often empty. Sometimes systems go for hours without visitors. When there are visitors, moreover, you don't have to work out who might be a suicide ganker keen to blow up your expensively-fit battleship, as you might in High-Sec. Neutral visitors are reported in NS Intel intelligence channel, and are often hunted out of NSC's local space. Finally, you can use lighter, cheaper ships to do lower-level missions in Null-Sec to earn more money than L4s in High-Sec, which means you put less ISK at risk when you undock.

D-Scan

Main article: Directional scanning

Should you find yourself alone with a neutral in system, then D-scanning is your best defense.

As you are in a mission site, other players cannot warp directly to the site or scan the site down themselves with core probes. They need to use combat probes to scan your ship down first.

What this means is that you have some breathing room first and shouldn't necessarily warp straight out of the site. Warping away from the mission unnecessarily will only slow down site completion time, meaning less profit-per-hour. You should always ensure that you have combat probes selected as part of your D-Scan filter.

It will generally take at least 4 "combat" probes at a distance of 2 AU or less to pinpoint your position. A good rule of thumb is to run the scan at 360° at a range of 5-10 AU. Probes outside that range are not close to finding you, and ships outside that range will probably take some time to get a fix on your position. Once you do see probes closing in, immediately flee to a safespot bookmark or (better) dock up in a friendly structure or an NPC station.

If you see this on your D-Scan, now is the time to dock up.

Bubbles

Main article: Tackling - Warp disruption fields

Warp Disruption Fields, lovingly referred to as bubbles, are often used in Null-Sec to catch neutrals. They will prevent you, or anyone else, from entering warp. To ensure that you don't find yourself caught in a bubble at the wrong time, always use gate tactical bookmarks when moving between systems—especially in a PvE-fit ship. To get the latest news about bubbles, keep watching the NSC intel chat channel and the NSC standing fleet chat, and ask on Mumble if you're unsure.

Intel and safety

NSC maintains a fairly reliable system for reporting the imminent presence of potentially-hostile pilots. See the details on the NSC's page. As a rule of thumb, the following are valuable alertness and safety precautions:

• Be in fleet
  • Fleet members can warp to any other fleet member's location. Being in fleet makes it much easier for help to get to you quickly if things turn nasty.
• Be in the intel channel, and have it open and visible.
  • All members of the NSC report in this channel on any neutral pilots they see in or approaching NSC's pocket. The intel channel can offer you vital minutes or seconds of warning
• Keep an eye on Local chat to see if neutral or hostile player enters your system.
  • Local is an excellent warning system, and if possibly-hostile pilots slip past Intel, you will learn about them when they enter the system and appear in Local's member list. Safeguard your ship immediately on seeing a neutral in Local.
  • Many pilots find it useful to run Local vertically at one side of their screen so they can see a maximum-length member list and spot new people entering it.
  • If you select the member list and press ctrl+A, you'll select all pilots currently in system. Any new pilots entering will then be obvious, as they will not be highlighted.
• Be on Mumble in the general NSC channel.
  • Being on Mumble makes it much easier for you to call for help quickly and clearly.
• Within the limitations of the piloting necessary to avoid excessive damage from rats (don't burn directly at NPC battleships), fight aligned or near-aligned to a celestial to which you can warp out at the first sign of trouble.
  • Try not to use gates as your warp-out points. Hostiles might be at them if they've just entered systems.

Using these precautions will significantly cut the risks you run, and they are strongly recommended.

L1/2/3 Security Missions

Main article: Mission reports

L1/2/3 Missions are generally considered the best missions to run if you are solo. Obviously it's the L3s that will pay the highest, however it is likely that most people will need to do some standings grinding to achieve the 3.0 standing required for access to L3s. While nobody likes to grind standings, the good news is that, as mentioned above, the reward values for missions are higher in Null-Sec than those many players are used to in HiSec, therefore your standings will increase a lot faster too. Depending on how much effort you want to put into the grind, a standing of 3.0 can easily be achieve in a single evening or two.

Recommended Skills

It is recommended that Unistas train the follow skills to at least III, ideally IV to make both the grind easier and the rewards higher. There is no rush to train these if you have something else more important to train first, however you are losing out if you do not train them eventually.

• Connections - 0.4 standing increase per level trained. With III trained, you can bypass the L1 grind altogether.
• Social - 5% bonus to standing increases per level. Makes the grind faster.
• Security Connections - Extra 10% LP per level when working for Security division agents. Who doesn't want to get paid more for no extra effort.
• Negotiation - 5% addition pay per level. Again, it's free ISK for no extra effort.

Mission Agents

Now that you have the skills, lets take a look at where to run these missions. You can run L1/2/3 missions within the NSC backpocket from the system of T22-QI, which is a dead end system one jump from the NSC home system of PC9-AY, using the following Intaki Syndicate Agents. Nearly all your missions will happen in T22-QI, however the odd mission will happen in PC9-AY. It is extremely rare that a mission will be further than 1 jump, although it can happen.

Aurmia Cariot L1 Security Agent T22-QI V - Moon 14	Bemps Latault L2 Security Agent T22-QI VI - Moon 6	Urwald Gogimund L3 Security Agent T22-QI VI - Moon 12

Ship Fitting Advice

There is absolutely no right or wrong answer regarding which ships to fly. That said, drone boats are extremely popular for two great reason. Firstly, drones do not use ammo which means that members can spend more time running missions and therefore make more profit, rather than running around Syndicate looking for ammo. Secondly, drones offer selectable damage- the drones belonging to each faction line have a unique damage type. This allows us to pick the type of drones that can hit the NPCs resist weaknesses.

Done boats generally rely on their ability to speed-tank to mitigate damage. This is makes drone boat fits great for new players as there isn't the need to train an extensive list of skills. The only requirement is that you are cap stable with the prop mod running. That is it. Anything else is an extra. Next main priority would be drone skills, especially Drones V for those that don't have it, to increase the overall DPS that the ships put out. More DPS means faster mission times, which means more money.

For Alpha Clones wishing to maximize damage, it is recommended to use Faction Drones instead of the Omega-locked T2 version. These are slightly more expensive, so its wise to wait until you are confident enough with managing drone aggro first (or remembering not to leave them behind!) before spending the extra ISK. Once you get the hand of things, you will soon be able to afford the extra cost.

Using drone boats, you should orbit a stationary object roughly central to the site just under your maximum drone range. This is usually around 40-50km. At that point you can use any weapon to draw the NPCs attention or simply wait till you have full room aggro. Once that is done, launch you drones and let them kill everything while you hang around outside the falloff range of the NPCs. Targeting priority should always be point/scram/web frigates first. If you find that NPCs are targeting your drones, recall them and wait until you have full room aggro before setting them loose again.

Running Missions

When it comes to running the actual missions, the aim is to run as many as possible as fast as possible to get the most LP. Use EVE-Survival to find the quickest way to complete the mission, hand it in and run another. After doing this for a little while you will start to remember how to blitz each mission which will only make things even faster, and therefore more profitable. Other than that, the same basic rules that apply to High-Sec also apply to Null-Sec. Avoid running missions against Empire Factions and DON'T run any storyline missions otherwise you will destroy you Empire standings.

Now get out there and start making it rain.

L4 Security Mission

L4 security missions can be found at EZA-FM IV - Intaki Syndicate Bureau, offered by agent Agrele Anneu. This is a lot more risky, since you can't rely on intel from your fellow corp mates about hostiles in nearby systems. Still, if you are in the mission pocket, they need to scan you down with Combat Scanner Probes, so an active eye on D-Scan can save you. If you do try to do L4 Security Missions at EZA, make sure you have plenty of bookmarks for the stations, gates and other safe spots.

Burner Missions

Main article: Anomic missions

Anomic Missions, more commonly known as Burner Missions, are a special subset of L4 missions that have unique features compared to the standard L4 Missions. Burner Missions have players facing either a single NPC, or a small gang of NPCs, who are extremely powerful rather than the typical hoards of Battleships that those who run the Standard L4s are used to. These NPCs have similar stats to a player flying a pirate faction ship, with an officer/deadspace fitting, pirate implants and full command links. In short, they are extremely dangerous. All these NPCs will use warp distruption, with the majority being fitted with warp scramblers to shut down players MWDs. If one of these NPCs catches you, much like if a hostile player catches you, you are in for a rough time. There are three different varieties of Burner Missions:

• Anomic Agent - A single, very powerful pirate frigate
• Anomic Team - A T2 Assault Frigate plus two T1 Logistics Frigates
• Anomic Base - 4 unique missions against a small number of powerful ships such as battlecruisers, cruisers, frigates and super carrier fighter waves

The other catch to Burner Missions is that they have restrictions on ship sizes. Anomic Agent and Anomic Team missions can only be completed in Frigate-sized ships. These can be either T1, Faction or T2 Frigates. In the case of the Anomic Base missions, this is increased up to medium-sized (anything up to T1 Battlecruiser) ships.

Syndicate Burner Small Gang Fleet Training

Because these missions provide not only a decent payout, but a great opportunity to practice team work, you can use Burner Missions as a way to provide reliable content to practice Fleet Ops. In a small gang of between four and six, aspiring FCs can practice moving a fleet through hostile space and broadcasting targets in the sites, aspiring scouts get the change to practice moving ahead of the fleet looking for both gate camps and potential PvP combat, Logi pilots can practice staying out of danger while responding to requests for repairs from fleet members, and the damage dealers in the fleet can practice listening to fleet commands and how to broadcast for repairs on time.

The minimum recommended fleet composition is 5 members, although those with enough practice can drop down to four.

• 1x Scouting Interceptor
• 2x Damage Dealer
• 2x Logistic Ship

Ship Fitting Advice

At present, the Uni does not routinely run burner missions.

The Uni's Armour Assault Frigate doctrine (only accessible to EVE Uni members) is a great starting point for running burner missions in small fleets. The quick skilling into AAFs, and the ability to have considerable tank and agility make this a great fleet composition.